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Mapping Ancient Production and Trade of Copper in Oman and Obsidian in Ethiopia

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Mapping Ancient Production and Trade of Copper in Oman and Obsidian in Ethiopia chapter 6 Mapping Ancient Production and Trade of Copper in Oman and Obsidian in Ethiopia Ioana A. Dumitru and Michael Harrower 1 Introduction This paper presents preliminary results of research that models interactions between ancient humans and their raw material environments through sat- ellite imagery mapping of copper in Oman and obsidian in Ethiopia.1 This research forms part of Dumitru’s upcoming dissertation, which employs a multi-scalar and diachronic approach to examine the dynamics of social net- works at varying spatial scales across multiple time periods. The case studies examined involve different resources, technologies and patterns of social in- teraction. The focus on socio-technical developments clarifies the interaction of human (producers and consumers) and non-human (environments and technologies) elements to address economic geography. Most fundamentally, the investigations examine the role of economic networks in the development of ancient sociopolitical complexity and the rise of secondary state-level soci- eties in Ethiopia and Oman, whose histories are less well-known but are never- theless important to understanding state formation worldwide. 1.1 Diachronic Approach In Oman, the first direct evidence of copper ore exploitation dates to the mid- third millennium BCE but is predated by evidence of production, dating to the fourth millennium BCE.2 During the late third and early to mid-second millen- 1 This research is part of two NASA-funded projects: the Archaeological Water Histories of Oman (ArWHO) project and the Southern Red Sea Archaeological Histories (SRSAH) proj- ect in Ethiopia, which examine the role of water in the long-term trajectory of ancient civilisations. 2 C. Giardino, Magan – The Land of Copper, Prehistoric Metallurgy of Oman (Muscat: Ministry of Heritage, 2017). G. Weisgerber, “Mehr als Kupfer in Oman”, Der Anschnitt 33 (1981): 174– 263; A. Hauptmann, “5000 Jahre Kupfer in Oman, I: Die Entwicklung der Kupfermetallurgie vom 3. Jahrtausend bis zur Neuzeit”, Der Anschnitt 4 (1985); A. Hauptmann et al., “Magan”, in Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie, ed. Meissner et al., (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1988), VII, pp. 195–199; J. McCorriston et al., “Monuments and Landscape of Mobile Pastoralists in Dhofar: Arabian Human Social Dynamics (AHSD) Project, 2009–2011”, © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004362321_007 Mapping Ancient Production and Trade of Copper 75 nia BCE, evidence of copper exploitation is indirect and based on the discovery of copper-based objects in mortuary contexts and on the proximity of smelting refuse to Wadi Suq tombs in Wadi Salh and Wadi Samad.3 The late second and mid-first millennia BCE is a period of flourishing copper production,4 which is followed by a period with very low archaeological visibility that lasts into the mid first millennium CE. Copper production is seen on the grandest scale dur- ing the Islamic period and, in particular, during the ninth and tenth centuries CE5 and continues to this day. In Ethiopia, there is evidence of obsidian exploitation as early as the Early Stone Age (ESA), and obsidian becomes widely traded by the sixth millen- nium BCE. The earliest evidence to date of long-distance trade of obsidian in Ethiopia dates to the Middle Stone Age (MSA) period and consists in the discovery of obsidian 300 km from its source.6 Obsidian exploitation contin- ues throughout the Late Stone Age (LSA). From the sixth to the first millennia BCE, Ethiopian obsidian is part of a trade network that supplies settlements located on the Tihama coast of south-western Yemen.7 Trade with coastal Journal of Oman Studies (2014): 117–144; M. Boehme, “The Bat-Type: A Hafit Period Tomb Construction in Oman”, Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 22 (2011): 23–31. 3 G. Weisgerber, “Archaologisches Fundgut 2: Jahrtausends v. Chr. in Oman”, in Golf – Archäologie, ed. K. Schippmann, A. Herling and J.-F. Salles (Buch am Erlbach: Internationale Archäologie 6, 1991), pp. 321–330; D.T. Potts, The Arabian Gulf in Antiquity, I: From Prehistory to the Fall of the Achaemenid Empire (Oxford: Clarendon, 1990); C. Velde, “Wadi Suq and Late Bronze Age in the Oman Peninsula”, in Archaeology of the United Arab Emirates: Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Archaeology of the U.A.E., ed. D. Potts, H. Al Naboodah and P. Hellye (London: Trident, 2003), pp. 102–113; L.R. Weeks, Early Metal­ lurgy of the Persian Gulf: Technology, Trade, and the Bronze Age World (Boston: Brill, 2003). 4 G. Weisgerber, “Oman: A Bronze-producing Centre during the 1st Half of the 1st Millennium BC”, in Bronzeworking Centres of Western Asia c. 1000–539 BC, ed. John Curtis (London: Kegan Paul International, 1988). 5 G. Weisgerber, “Patterns of Early Islamic Metallurgy in Oman”, Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 10 (1980): 115–126; Weeks 2003. 6 A. Negash, A. Brown and B. Nash, “Varieties and Sources of Artefactual Obsidian in the Middle Stone Age of the Middle Awash, Ethiopia”, Archaeometry 53 (2011): 661–673. 7 M.-L. Inizan and V.M. Francaviglia, “Les périples de l’obsidienne à travers la mer Rouge”, Journal des Africanistes 72, 2 (2002): 11–19; L. Khalidi, “The Formation of a Southern Red Sea Seascape in the Late Prehistoric Period: Tracing Cross-Red Sea Culture-Contact, Interaction, and Maritime Communities Along the Tihama Coastal Plain, Yemen, in the Third to First Millennium BCE”, in Society for Arabian Studies Monograph no. 5: Natural Resources and Cultural Connections of the Red Sea, ed. Janet Starkey, Paul Starkey, Tony Wilkinson (London: BAR International Series, 2007): 35–43; L. Khalidi, “Holocene Obsidian Exchange in the Red Sea Region”, in The Evolution of Human Populations in Arabia: Paleoenvironments, Prehistory and Genetics, ed. M.D. Petraglia and J.I. Rose (New York: Springer, 2009), pp. 279–291; L. Khalidi et al., “Obsidian Sources in Highland Yemen and Their Relevance to Archaeological Research in the Red Sea Region”, Journal of Archaeological Science 37, 9 (2010): 2332–2345..
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